If Chinese vessels are conducting espionage near U.S. (and other) coastlines, should they be allowed to?
Reuters reported in early September that the PRC is “using COSCO’s merchant fleet for espionage, US says.” For how long? Well, just decades (September 1, 2026).
China’s state-owned shipping giant COSCO uses concealed equipment on board its ships to spy on military communications near the coastlines of target nations including the US, two senior Trump administration officials said.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the US assessment of the Chinese programme, said COSCO has a decades-long intelligence-collection partnership with Beijing. The arrangement allows China to collect communication signals from vessels and aircraft operating across Europe, North America and Asia, they said.
The advanced equipment aboard the ships is intended to enable China to gather information about “military communications technologies and encryption developments,” one of the officials said.
The effort also allows Beijing to monitor key shipping lanes and maritime routes crucial for trade and military navigation, the official added.
Beijing objects to such claims. “We oppose vilifying China by peddling the so-called ‘intelligence collection’ narrative, which is totally baseless,” said embassy spokesman Liu Chang.
Despite Chang’s so-called “repudiation” of the so-called “intelligence collection” narrative, various congressmen, including John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, have now called on the Department of Homeland Security to counter the threat by revoking certain of the spy-ships’ U.S.-conferred privileges.
In an October 14, 2026 letter to DHS, the congressmen write that the spying by the COSCO vessels deserves “particular attention considering COSCO’s January 2025 addition to the Department of War’s 1260H Chinese Military Companies list.” The Department of War had cited “official acts on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army” and related reasons for adding COSCO to the list.
Against this backdrop, the House Select Committee on [the CCP] has been informed that at least 10 COSCO vessels listed below were enrolled in the Qualship 21 program as of July 15, 2026, where enrollees receive certain benefits upon arrival, including reduced Port State Control examination frequency….
State-owned commercial vessels engaging in espionage is an expected breach of trust we regularly anticipate from the Chinese Communist Party. We therefore ask that the Department expediently revoke enrollment of COSCO vessels from this privileged list, refuse renewal, and apply added scrutiny to similar companies that conduct acts on behalf of the PLA and operate as part of the Chinese industrial base.
Sounds like the bare minimum that should be done.
